I had been wanting a light table for a while for sensory play with the kids, but they also come in handy for drawing and illustration for grown ups. Using a drawing light table makes it much easier to trace, allowing you to duplicate your own previous works, use templates or incorporate bits from different illustrations onto one piece of paper.
We were sent the Transotype LED Drawing Light Table from Graphics Direct and I’ve been using it to help with making a few colouring pages (since I’ve got into the grown up colouring craze these days)
The Transotype drawing light table is just larger than A4 size, allowing you to work with A4 paper and is about as thin as a tablet, and light to carry. It comes with a mains adapter, and the light level is dim-able via the switch you can see within the wire below. It really couldn’t be any simpler to use, and it gives a strong even light – much easier to work with than DIY light tables I have come up with myself previously!
The power of the light shining from below means that if you place a paper onto the light table, and then place another on top, you will be able to see the lower piece and trace those lines on to your 2nd piece of paper. You could then replicate the entire piece, which some illustrators do allowing them to have multiple copies of illustrations to colour in different ways, or trace just the outline allowing you to fill in your template in a different way from the first.
You can see above how well the pages show through using the light table (this book is a really cool Zentangle book that I will be telling you about and giving away copies off on the blog very soon!)
I used this simple technique to make a quick tracing doodle of my name in decorated letters.
Here I’m tracing over a zentangle pumpkin picture that I did before, to make another sheet with just the outline so that I can make other designs within the same template
and here I’m using a template from a Zentangle group on Facebook (Ornation Creation) to trace and then fill in with patterns to make a simple colouring page
Once the pictures are done, I scan them in and then fill the pencil lines in with black using Photoshop.
I’ll share these finished colouring sheets with you really soon in a new post.
If you like to make your own colouring pages or illustrations, what tools and methods have you tried? I would love more ideas!
Of course the light table is fun for sensory play too, it’s fun to let the kids join me and experiment with different colours on the light. I’ll share more light table sensory play ideas soon!
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.